Climate emergency datakit
Last updated: September 2019
More than half of UK councils have declared a ‘climate emergency’. This datakit is designed to help councils address this emergency by making open data relating to climate change more discoverable.
A variety of open datasets are presented with metadata and example visualisations. Structured data that has been pre-processed by the Trafford Data Lab are provided at local authority level where available.
Impacts
Flood risk
The chance of flooding from rivers and/or the sea is available at 50m by 50m resolution. Each grid cell is allocated to one of four flood risk categories, taking into account flood defences and their condition. The risk of flooding from surface water is available from here.
R users can adapt this code to instersect the flood risk dataset with their local authority boundary.
Additional resources
The Environment Agency has an interactive map showing flood risk information.
Air Quality Management Areas
Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA) are declared when levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant that occurs from vehicle exhaust emission, exceed the National Air Quality Objective.
R users can adapt this code to instersect the AQMA dataset with their local authority boundary.
Additional resources
DEFRA has an AQMAs interactive map.
Background air pollution
Estimates for annual mean background concentrations of nitrogen oxide (NOx), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), coarse (PM10) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are available at 1km x 1km resolution.
R users can adapt this code to create 1 km x 1 km grid squares for their local authority to map background concentrations against.
Additional resources
The UK Ambient Air Quality Interactive Map visualises the background concentration data.
Roadside air pollution
There are several sources of continuous air quality monitoring data including:
- DEFRA UK-AIR
- Air Quality England
- Air Quality in Scotland
- Air Quality in Wales
- Northern Ireland Air
- OpenAQ
The legal limits for NO2, PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations are:
| Pollutant | Concentration | Averaging period | Permitted exceedences |
|---|---|---|---|
| NO2 | 40 µg/m3 | Annual mean | n/a |
| NO2 | 200 µg/m3 | 1-hour mean | 18 times a year |
| PM10 | 40 µg/m3 | Annual mean | n/a |
| PM10 | 50 µg/m3 | 24-hour mean | 35 times a year |
| PM2.5 | 25 µg/m3 | Annual mean | n/a |
Mitigation
Total CO2 emissions and by sector
Total carbon dioxide emissions are broken down by different domestic, industrial & commercial, and transport sectors. Carbon dioxide emissions are also available per capita (ktCO2/capita).
Additional resources
The National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) website has an interactive map that allows you to explore CO2 emissions by local authority area and sector.
CO2 emissions from large industrial installations
Carbon dioxide emissions from large industrial installations are available across the UK from the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. Other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide are also available.
Road transport fuel consumption
Estimates of road transport fuel use by local authority are available for petrol (petrol cars, motorcycles and petrol LGVs) and diesel (diesel cars, diesel LGVs, HGVs and buses) consuming vehicles. Estimates by road type (motorways, A roads and minor roads) is also available in the source dataset.
Domestic property build period
Information about the age of domestic dwellings is available from the Valuation Office Agency. The age of a building influences energy consumption with older properties tending to be less energy efficient than newer buildings.
Adaptation
EPCs by Environmental Impact Rating
An Energy Performance Certificates’ (EPC) Environmental Impact Rating is an estimate of the amount of CO2 produced by a home. The most energy efficient homes fall within band A (lowest CO2 emissions) and the least efficent in Band G (highest CO2 emissions). Lodgements on the Energy Performance of Buildings Register are published on a quarterly basis.
Licensed electric vehicles
The number of licensed electric vehicles (battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or range-extended electric) registered by the keeper’s local authority is published by the Department for Transport. Data on licensed diesel and ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) is also available in the source data.
Pedal cycle counts
The Department for Transport publish Annual Average Daily Flow (AADF) and traffic data for every junction-to-junction link on the ‘A’ road and minor road network in Great Britain. A count of pedal cycles that pass a manual count point is provided at local authority level.
Recycling
The percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting by local councils is available by financial year.
Renewable electricity generation
Data on renewable electricity installations, their capacity (MW) and generation (MWh) are available at a local authority level.
